Wells Fargo fires veteran over dime crime in 1963. Unbelievable.

August 28, 2012|Eileen AMbrose

The Des Moines Register reports that a 68-year-old Vietnam veteran was fired from his Wells Fargo Home Mortgage job because 49 years ago he put a cardboard dime slug into a laundromat's washing machine.

The paper said federal regulations now prohibit banks from hiring people convicted of certain crimes. This was supposed to root out bad actors at the top, but banks have been firing low-level workers.

According to the Register, Iowa's Republican Senator Chuck Grassley released a statement that said in part: “On the face of it, these situations seem unfair.” Ya think?

He went on to say, “The public is right to question why top executives aren’t being held accountable, especially when banks themselves are using federal regulations to justify firing rank-and-file workers.”

Banks, of course, are likely to just blame regulations. But they are taking this to a ridiculous extreme.

Meanwhile, Wells Fargo this summer agreed to a $175 million settlement with the U.S. Department of Justice over accusations of discriminatory lending practices in Baltimore and elsewhere. A Wells Fargo representative told the Baltimore Sun that the bank still denies the allegations, but agreed to settle to put the matter behind it.

Do you think anyone got fired over that loss of $175 million for the bank? Likely not. But we can rest easy that Wells Fargo took action on the 10 cent crime.